We want and need to understand our past, and languages are a central part of history in the Upper Midwest. Using sound recordings made since the 1930s in the Nordic languages, we will talk about how our understanding of language history has been revolutionized because of these recordings and explore what they can tell us not only about the languages but about the social and cultural contexts in which they were spoken.

The event is free and open to the public.

This program is a part of the Borghesi-Mellon Interdisciplinary Workshops in the Humanities, sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with support from Nancy and David Borghesi and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.